IMPORTANT INFORMATION ABOUT YOUR WATER
YORKTOWN CONSOLIDATED WATER DISTRICT
1080 Spillway Rd. Shrub Oak, NY 10598
IMPORTANT INFORMATION ABOUT YOUR DRINKING WATER
Our water system recently received a notice of violation. Although this incident was not an emergency, as our customers, you have a right to know what happened and what we did to correct this situation. If it had been an emergency you would have notified within 24 hrs. You do not need to boil your water or take corrective actions. Alternative water supplies are not needed.
What occurred?
Water samples are collected quarterly at four USEPA approved locations & tested for Disinfection Byproducts (DBPs) including HAA5s & TTHMs. Disinfectants (chlorine) can react with naturally-occurring materials in the water to form DBPs.
On November 05, 2020, 4th Quarter DBP water samples were collected. Lab results show that samples from all four sites were, as usual, below the Maximum Contaminant Level (MCL). There was a high read during the Second Quarter at one site (a violation notice was mailed out to residents) for one HAA5 (monochloroacetic acid). That high read (from May 2020) continues to affect our Locational Running Annual Average (LRAA) for DBPs even though the recent water sample results were low in DBPs. LRAA is the means of measuring DBPs as per Westchester County DOH & NYS DOH Regulations. The most recent Locational Running Annual Average (LRAA) for Haloacetic Acids (HAA5) at this site, which includes the high 05/05/20 sample, was at an average concentration of 0.068 mg/l, which exceeds the Maximum Contaminant Level (MCL) of 0.060 mg/l and is in violation of Part 5, Subpart 5-1, Sections 5-1.51(a) and 5-1.52 (Table 3) of the NYS Sanitary Code.
There was not a new high reading. New violations are likely to continue each quarter, until the May 5, 2020 water sample is no longer included in the LRAA calculation for HAA5 (May 2021).
What should I do?
There is nothing you need to do unless you have a severely compromised immune system, have an infant, or are elderly. These people may be at increased risk and should seek advice about drinking water from their health care providers. If a situation arises where the water is no longer safe to drink, you will be notified within 24 hours.
What does this mean?
This is not an immediate risk. If it had been an emergency, you would have been notified within 24 hours. Haloacetic acids are disinfection byproducts formed during treatment of drinking water by chlorine, the most commonly used disinfectant in New York State. Drinking water is disinfected by public water suppliers to kill bacteria and viruses that could cause serious illnesses. For this reason, disinfection of drinking water by chlorination is beneficial to public health. The amount of haloacetic acids in drinking water can change from day to day, depending on the temperature, the amount of organic material in the source water, the amount of chlorine added, and a variety of other factors.
The following paragraph summarizes and characterizes the available studies on human populations exposed to haloacetic acids, and provides a general summary of the health effects of haloacetic acids in animals, which occur at exposure levels much higher than exposures that could result through normal use of the water.
Some studies suggest that people who drank chlorinated drinking water containing disinfection by-products (including haloacetic acids) for long periods of time (e.g., 20 to 30 years) have an increased risk for cancer. However, how long and how frequently people actually drank the water, and how much haloacetic acids the water contained is not known for certain. Therefore, the evidence from these studies is not strong enough to conclude that the observed increased risk for cancer is due to haloacetic acids, other disinfection by-products, or some other factor. Studies of laboratory animals show that the two haloacetic acids, dichloroacetic acid and trichloroacetic acid can cause cancer following exposure to high levels over their lifetimes. Dichloroacetic acid and trichloroacetic acid are also known to cause other effects in laboratory animals after high levels of exposure, primarily on the liver, kidney, and nervous system and on their ability to bear healthy offspring. The risks for adverse health effects from haloacetic acids in drinking water are small compared to the risk for illness from drinking inadequately disinfected water.
What is being done?
The YWD believes that high 2nd Quarter DBP reading was due to a number of factors. The site (2279 Crompond Rd. Yorktown Central Garage Bldg.) has 6” diameter ductile iron waterline, approximately 800’ long supplying its water (a home typically has a ¾” copper line). Water usage is low at this location as it is office space. In mid-March, due to Covid-19 mandated staff reductions, water usage was further reduced by 50%. This situation continued through mid-May. Stagnation in the water line, combined with higher temperatures & reduced usage may have caused the chlorine residual in the pipe to interact with organics. This may have resulted in the formation of the DBP HAA5. The Yorktown Water District (YWD) was notified of the lab results on 05/27/20 & a resample was arranged for and collected on 05/29/20. The resample results showed the water from the site had returned to its normal low level for HAA5s.The Water District submitted a corrective action plan to Westchester County Department of Health to achieve compliance with the MCL for HAA5. As part of this plan, YWD installed a water sample station on the water line closer to the Crompond Rd. water main. Subsequent samples are now more representative of the distribution system’s water versus that of a long, oversized, low flow water line.
For more information, please contact the Yorktown Water District, 1080 Spillway Road, Shrub Oak, NY 10588 @ 914-245-6111 or the Westchester County Dept. of Health at 914-813-5000.
*Please share this information with all the other people who drink this water, especially those who may not have received this notice directly (for example, people in apartments, nursing homes, schools, and businesses). You can do this by posting this notice in a public place or distributing copies by hand or mail.
This notice is being sent to you by the Yorktown Consolidated Water District. New York State Water System ID#: NY5903469.
